When we bought our apartment we suddenly had a much bigger mortgage than our old one (three times the size) and needed to find some rental income to ease the pain of the massive mortgage repayments.
We put our apartment on a holiday rentals website and then thought.....how else can we market our property without spending a fortune on advertising?
One of the other owners on our community was having difficulty renting his apartment out and told me that his attempts at marketing consisted of having a flip photo album showing photos of his apartment that he passed round friends and relatives. Apart from the fact that there is a finite number of friends and relatives that would want to visit his place in Spain, the other issue was that he hadn't taken the time to take photos that presented his apartment and surrounding area in the best light. No wonder that he wasn't getting the bookings.
I worked for a bank which had an internal website that staff could advertise stuff they had for sale. I put an ad on that and immediately had an extra booking. If your employer hasn't a website, there will probably be a notice board that you can stick up advert for your property, I've done that too and got rentals from it. The people at work will probably ask for mates rates and I don't mind knocking a few quid off, except in July and August when I know that I will have every day booked out to people paying top dollar. You need to be generous sometimes but you shouldn't be giving away your best weeks at a discount.
When putting your advert together it helps if you take a bit of time and use your computer to prepare an A4 size advert with a nice external colour picture of your apartment and one or two internal photos. Put in a link to your on-line web advert and your Picasa web album so that people can get a good idea of what they are getting for their money. Put in your advert that you are prepared to offer mates rates to staff.
In addition to your work colleagues you'll probably have the odd relative or two that wants to see what you've bought. I am not a tight-wad but the place is costing me money and I'm not going to let them go for free unless I'm already there and they can come as my guest. If my family want a holiday in my apartment they are welcome and they do get it at a very good price, it all helps towards the mortgage. If your Mum and Dad want to go.....................don't charge them! Your Mum and Dad have given you enough in life already, it is a time to give them something back. All the other relatives are fair game.
So, now you've hit your work colleagues and your relatives. Let's not forget friends and neighbours (let's hear you sing........."When you've got friends and neighbours all the world is a happier place")
I was talking to my next door neighbour who who told me that his daughter has never had a proper beach holiday in the sun, she has now. They had a great holiday and I am sure that they've told the other neighbours. I've had some business cards printed with a photo of the apartment on the front with contact details and web address for the holiday rentals site on the reverse. I gave my neighbour one of the cards and told him to let me know if he was interested. I gave him a good rate for the week but I think his positive comments to our mutual friends and relatives will produce more rentals from them. Moo.com did my cards for me and they cost me about £15, I try and keep a few on me so that I can give them to people who may be interested in renting our property.
I've talked about "mates rates" and let's not forget your mates. They will look after your apartment and they will tell their relatives too. I've already rented out to my old school chums children! Don't be embarrassed to say "It's available at very reasonable rates!" every time that they mention you having a place in Spain. Once one of them has been, the others will be keen to follow suit.
If you are married, then you have the potential to double your rentals from not just your friends, family and work colleagues but also your wives/husbands, friends, family and work colleagues. Yes I've had rentals from all these areas too.
Spreading the net further, I have a son and daughter both in their early 20's and both have large social networks. I told my daughter that I'd give her a commission on any rentals she could put my way. It didn't take long before she asked me to e-mail her boss with details of my apartment. Not to be outdone my nephew has also recommended my apartment to a work colleague which resulted in another booking. Although I've offered my daughter the financial incentive, she is too kind to take it!
The important point here is to have an apartment that is a cut above the rest, that you, your family and friends are happy to recommend to their family and friends.
Finally, how many of you have a pre-set signature at the foot of your e-mails? Beneath my signature, address and phone number I have a line that says "click this link for details of a great place to stay on the Costa Blanca" and then the link to my web page on the holiday rentals website. I know for definite that this has got me at least one additional rental that I would not have had otherwise. It lets everyone you e-mail know about your place in Spain.
Next time I'll tell you about how to convert enquiries into bookings and my experiences.
Looking further ahead I'll tell you how to get repeat bookings from happy renters.